Method of rolling sheet metal.



No. 683,944. Patented Oct. 8, l90l. J. W. KEFF ER &. C. B. CUSHWA.

METHOD OF ROLLING SHEET METAL.

(Application filed Apr. 25, 1901.)

(No Model.)

In venzor -a;

7N: NORRIS PETERS c0. momumo. WASHINGTON, u. c.

if NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH IV. KEFFER AND CHARLES B. CUSl-IWA, OF PITTSBURG,

PENNSYLVANIA.

METHOD 0? ROLLING SHEET METAL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 683,944, dated estatea, 1901.

Application filed April 25, 1901. Serial No. 57,403. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JosEPH W. KEFFER and CHARLES B. CUsHwA, residentsof Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, haveinvented a new and useful improvement in Methods of Rolling Sheet Metal;and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription thereof.

Our invention relates to a method of rolling sheet metal; and its objectis to provide a method of rolling sheet metal which will do away with alarge number of the reheatin gs employed in the ordinary process andalso with the many manipulations and handlings thereof, so that the costof production will be greatly reduced.

In the common process of rolling sheet metal it is the practice toreduce the ingot or billet to bars about five-eighths to threefourths ofan inch in thickness and five to eight inches wide, which are then cutinto sections known as sheet-bars of a length approximately equal to thewidth of the sheets to be formed. These sheet-bars are then heated andfed sidewise between suitable breaking-down rolls, it being the commonpractice for one workman to feed them into the rolls and another Workmanto receive them therefrom and return them over the rolls, and to savetime it is the common practioe to work two such bars at the same time.In these rolls the bars are reduced to about one-fourth to one-eighth ofan inch in thickness, and the two sheets thus formed are then placed oneupon the other and rolled down to about eighteen or twenty gage. Thesesheets are then separated and a pile consisting of two or more sheetsplaced one upon the other is formed and heated to a good rollingtemperature and then reduced by rolling in suitable rolls. For thecoarser gages of sheet-iron this is generally sufficient to bring thesheets down to the desired gage, so that the packs can at once besheared, opened, cold-rolled, and annealed; but for the finer gages thepack is usually doubled over on itself, making a pile of six or eightsheets, again heated, and rolled until reduced to the desired gage,after which the packs are sheared, opened up,cold-rolled,and annealed.

All the operations in this described methodsuch as roughing down theplates, piling the sheets and folding the packs, and charging thematerial at different stages into the furnace or furnaces are performedby hand and the method therefore involves a great expenditure of timeand labor.

It is the object of our invention to simplify this process and to reducethe number of handlings, reheatings, and manipulations necessary, andconsequently reduce the cost of labor incident to the reduction of themetal to its finished or desired gage. To this end our inventioncomprises, generally stated, a method of rolling sheet metal, whichconsists in reducingan ingot, billet, or slab at a single heat into aplate of a width approximately equal to the width desired in thefinished sheet and from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch thick, thenshearing such plate into sections of suitable length, placing two ormore of such plates on each other and charging them into areheating-furnace,where they are raised to a good rolling temperature,and then entering two or more such piles of packs simultaneously intoparallel-arranged continuous mills, whereby they are further reduced,and still at the same heat piling the reduced packs one on the other andthen further rolling said double packs, thereby reducing the sheets tothe finished gage, after which the packs are sheared, opened up,coldrolled, and annealed in the ordinary way.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a diagrammatic plan View ofthe first part of apparatus suitable for carrying out our method, andFig. 2 is a similar View of the continuation of such apparatus.

1, 2, and 3 represent suitable heating-furnaces wherein the ingots,billets, or slabs are heated to a suitable rolling temperature. Fromthese furnaces the heated ingot, billet, or slab is transferred to thefeed-table 4 of the rolling-mill 5, the latter being either a two-highreversing-mill or a three-high mill, the latter preferred, said millbeing provided on its rear side with the feed-table 6. The heated ingot,billet, or slab is passed back and forth through the mill 5 inthewell-understood manner until it is reduced to a plate ofapproximately the width of the sheets to be the mill 5 the plate isconveyed along the table 6 to the shear 7, where it is sheared intosections of suitable length for convenient piling and rolling. Thesesections of plate are then formed into piles consisting of two, three,or more, depending upon the gage of sheet-plate to be produced, and arefed into the continuous reheating-furnace 8, said furnace being of awellknown construction wherein the plates are fed in at one end, carriedtherethrough,and removed from the other end. The piles or packs areheated in the furnace S to a suitable rolling temperature, and then twoor more such piles or packs are entered simultaneously into two or moreparallel continuous or tandem mills. In the drawings we show two suchmills 9 and 10, each of said mills comprising four stands of rolls, withsuitable guides between the same; but either more or less than fourstands may be used, if necessary or desired. From these mills 9 and 10the reduced packs pass substantially simultaneously upon the feed-tables11 and 1:2, and the pack or pile on the table 12 is transferred in anysuitable manner over to the table 11 and placed on top of the pack onsaid table. Vhen the packs or piles leave the 'mills 9 and 10, they havebeen reduced to as thin a gage as is possible owing to the spring of therolls and the slack in the adjusting means of the last stand of rolls insaid mill, and a further rolling of these packs singly would not resultin any material further reduction of the same, due to the slack andspring of the rolls and their adjusting means. Consequently the reducedpacks or piles are assembled one on top of the other, as stated, andbeing still at good rolling temperature are passed through thecontinuous or tandem mill 13, the same comprising two or more stands ofrolls, as necessary, (three being shown,) with suitable guidestherebetween, and in this mill the double packs are further reducedsuccessively in the different stands, and the spring in the rolls andthe slack in the adjusting means of the last stand will not be so greatas to prevent the double packs being brought to the desired gage. ThePacks are then conveyed by live rollers l t and endless chains 15 or anyother convenient conveyer means to the shears 16 and 17, where they aresheared to the desired size, after which they are opened up in anypreferred way and the sheets conveyed by the live-rollers 18 to thecold-rolls 19, through which the sheets are separately passed to smoothdown the surface and finish the same. The sheets as they leave theserolls are again piled, preferably, on the bottom plate of anannealingbox, and when suflicient sheets have been piled thereon theyare conveyed by a crane or similar device and placed in theannealingfurnace 20 and subjected to the ordinary annealing process.

According to our method of rolling sheet metal the metal is heated buttwice, first in the shape of an ingot, billet, or slab in the furnaces1, 2, and 3 and then in the reheating-furnace 8, the operations aftersuch reheating being performed in such a manner and so expeditiously asto finally reduce the sheets to their finished gage at the single heat.In the old methods of rolling sheet metal at least three and sometimesfour and even more heats are necessary from the ingot or billet down tothe finished sheet, this being due largely to the manner of handling ormanipulating the metal during the rolling operation. Furthermore, thenumber of workmen or attendants necessary in our process is very largelyreduced and the product correspondingly cheapened. The rolling of thepiled sheets after leaving the reheating-furnace 8 simultaneously in twoor more parallel continuous or tandem mills enables us to reduce thepiles in the most expeditious manner, and it is necessary to form theinitial piles only of such a number of sheets as will insure their readyreduction, and the rolling in this manner leaves two or more piles orpacks of approximately the same rolling heat, which can be at onceplaced together and then passed through the continuous or tandem mill13, and thereby reduced to gage. In the mill 13 the pack or pilecomprises four,

'six, or more sheets, as the case may be, and

therefore comprising a pack of suflicient thickness to be reduced to thedesired gage in the last stand of said rolls. If the initial packs fromthe furnace 8 were formed of four, six, or eight sheets, they would notbe as readily reduced in the mills 9 and 10, and, furthermore, therewould he more liability of the sheets slipping one on the other whenentered in the mill, due to the thickness of the packs. Consequently byforming the packs of only half this number of sheets a greaterproportional reduction of each sheet is secured and the liability of thesheets slipping one on the other when entered in the rolls is greatlyreduced. If such packs were rolled in a continuous mill in successionand not simultaneously, the first pack through such mill would have tobe delayed until another one or more arrived in order that they could beassembled to form a pack of sufficient thickness to be further reducedin the next mill or set of rolls. This delay would allow the first packto cool to such an extent that it would not readily reduce in the nextmill; but by entering two or more packs simultaneously in parallel millswe are enabled to form each of said packs of comparatively small numberof sheets, so that they will readily reduce in said mill and will leavethe mills at the same and a good rolling heat, so that they can beatonce assembled and passed to the next mill.

In the case of the coarser gages of sheet metal it may not be necessaryto pile the packs as they emerge from the parallel continuous mills 9and 10, in which event the packs would be passed in succession throughthe mill 13, and, indeed, in that event the mill 10 could be dispensedwith. It is essential, however, that the mills be continuous or tandemones in order that the metal may be given a large number of passes inquick succession and before the temperature of the plates can fall belowa rolling heat.

What we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-+- 1. The method of rolling metal sheets,which consists in reducingan ingot, billet or slab by rolling without reheating to a plate of awidth approximately equal to the width desired in the finished sheetsand from. oneeighth to one-fourth of an inch thick, shearing such plateinto sections of suitable length for piling and rollin g, piling two ormore such plates on each other, reheating such packs, simultaneouslyreducing by rolling two or more such packs, piling said reduced packsone on the other as they emerge simultaneously from the reducing-rolls,and then immediately further reducing by rolling such compound packwithout reheating to the finished gage.

2. The method of rolling metal sheets,which consists in reducing aningot, billet or slab by rolling without reheating to a plate'of a widthapproximately equal to the width desired in the finished sheets and fromoneeighth to one-fourth inch thick, shearing such plate into sections ofsuitable length for piling and rolling, piling two or more such plateson each other, reheating such packs, simultaneously-reducing by rollingtwo or more such packs, piling the reduced packs on each other as theyemerge simultaneously from the reducing-rolls, then immediately furtherreducing by rolling such compound packs without reheating to thefinished gage, opening up such packs and cold-rolling the sheetsseparately.

3. The method of rolling metal sheets, which consists in reducing aningot, billet or slab by rolling without reheating to a plate of a widthapproximately equal to the Width desired in the finished sheets and fromoneeighth to one-fourth of an inch thick, shearing such plate intosections of suitable length for piling and rolling, piling two or moresuch plates on each other, reheating the same, simultaneously enteringtwo or more such packs into parallel reducing-rolls and reducing thesame therein, piling such reduced I consists in reducing an ingot,billet or slab.

by rolling without reheating to a plate of a width approximately equalto the width desired in the finished sheets and from oneeight-h toone-fourth of an inch thick, shear-y ing such plate into sections ofsuitable length for piling and rolling, piling two or more such plateson each other, reheating the same, simultaneously entering two or moresuch packs into parallel continuous or tandem mills and reducing thesametherein, piling such reduced packs asthey emerge simultaneously fromthe parallel mills one on the other, and then immediately furtherreducing by rolling such assembled packs without reheating to thefinished gage.

5. The method of rolling metal sheets,which consists in reducing aningot, billet or slab by rolling without reheating to a plate of a widthapproximately equal to the width desired in the finished sheets and fromoneeighth to one=fourth of an inch thick, shear= ing such plate intosections of suitable length for piling and rolling, piling two or moresuch plates on each other, reheating the same, simultaneously enteringtwo or more such packs into parallel continuous or tandem mills andreducing the same therein, piling such reduced packs as they emergesimultaneously from the parallel mills one on the other, and thenimmediately entering such assembled packs without reheating into a continuous or tandem mill and further reducing the same therein to thefinished gage.

In testimony whereof We, the said JOSEPH W. KEFFER and CHARLES E.CUSHWA, have hereunto set our hands.

JOSEPH W. KEFFER. CHARLES B. OUSHWA. V

